A Premise Salesman with Some Things on His Mind

Time to Think Buy?

You have to be awfully pessimistic about long-term economic prospects not to think there are some great values in the equity markets right now. The markets are undervalued and appear to be set to discount even further. So — surprise, surprise — it might be a good time to be rich…or even to have a little extra cash and time. It could be a nice time to buy.

Why buy now? Sure, the markets might drop further and give you some slightly better prices, but why deal with the stress. Play it cool. With almost Zen-like calmness a person could cherry pick a handful of investments with confidence and optimism. No sweat. There’s too much stress in the markets now already.

Consider these simple facts.

First, after the first global recession, many Fortune 500 companies did ok. In fact some seemed to thrive. They accumulated assets, like cash, and expanded in the global market. They might not be peaking out, but they will be ready to do so when the global markets do come back online.

You might look at practical commodities like oil, which will fly through the roof when the market recovers. (Glenn Beck is hawking gold…reason enough to be wary of that bubble.) Even in the current economic malaise, places like China continue to demand more from economic standards where a middle class is emerging. Industry is growing in these places, too. The recession is simply a little speed bump in the quickening global demand for oil

(Kind of a corollary to the idea that oil might be a decent investment is the fact that green technology will make sense. We won’t “Drill, baby, drill” our way out of this one. Unless the United States can produce 100% of its oil needs, it is beholden to the global market. Sadly much of the world sees this opportunity more so than the stubbornly reactionary American market, so you might end up investing in Europe or Korea, but green technology makes some sense — possibly — too. It will be harder to know who the winners will be here in the long term. But hey! Have fun.)

Most importantly, there are some great P/E stocks out there. You can do well both in the short term and the long term if you look here. There’s a lot of cash in many corporations now, too.

A lot of the pessimism in the markets is psychological, fueled by people who really don’t have a lot of experience in markets like these. Listening to so-called financial experts from brokerages and banks will not cheer you up. They see nothing but darkness. It might be time to invest like a woman! Or like Warren Buffett. The stories have been playing in the news recently and they have been fun to read. I think there’s something to it.

Cash and time mixed with patience and reason will win the day and now might be a great time to set up and win. I hope. And going forward…STOP VOTING FOR REPUBLICANS! Save the future…and your investments.